Nick hadn't taken the wheel of the ZPD car in months, and despite the circumstances he couldn't help but enjoy himself as he tore down the highway at fifty miles an hour. He didn't need a map or a catnav to know that he was heading straight for Tall Oaks, the next stage of their mad journey. He hadn't been to that place since he'd made a delivery for Mr. Big, but he doubted that it had changed much since his last visit. The town derived its name from the unusually tall and thick oak trees that could be seen in every populated street. Said trees were very popular with the kids, especially the ones naturally built for climbing.
In the passenger seat usually occupied by Nick, Stu Hopps stared out the window in silence. The middle-aged rabbit was probably still reeling from the unfortunate incident that had led to their small group splitting apart. Pop-Pop Hopps had given them no choice, Nick reminded himself. He let his bigotry overcome common sense and paid the price. Nick didn't know how to say that Pop-Pop deserved it without making Stu pull out his fox deterrent.
"They'll be fine." Nick finally said, getting the rabbit's attention. "Judy'll take care of them. I bet they've already found another car and are following us right now."
"I can't believe we did that." Stu stared at the road ahead, his ears drooping beneath his cap. "I can't believe... my own father..."
"I know, but think about what's at stake." Nick said. "The theft of those millions cost hundreds of people their jobs and nearly destroyed someone's business. We owe it to them to get that money back." he wasn't used to being this serious, but he knew what was like to suffer the consequences of someone else's actions. It was so unfair, so frustrating, so... "In fact, your father should count himself lucky we didn't decide to arrest him on the spot!" right after he snapped, he immediately regretted his words. "I'm sorry, I..."
"No, you're right." Stu sighed. "I'm going to have a long talk with him about priorities when this is over." With that he turned back to the window and was silent once again.
Nick realized after that that Stu had averted his eyes for the entirety of their brief conversation. Something else was troubling the bunny, and Nick was quite sure that it was a certain fox. It couldn't be the usual reason, Nick thought with a strange flutter in his heart, as Stu had already made it quite clear that he wasn't like his crazy father. Before he could figure out what was up, Nick spotted something up ahead. Someone was standing at the side of the road, trying to wave them down.
As a police officer, Nick couldn't refuse. All the same, he advised Stu to watch out for anything suspicious as he brought the car to a halt. The hitchhiker was a woodchuck with a brown jacket and brown eyes, and he looked very relieved to see them.
"Thanks for stopping, officer!" He gasped, as if standing on the side of a road for who knows how long had totally sapped him of strength.
"What's the trouble?" Nick asked.
"My car broke down and I need to get to Bunnyburrow. Can you give me a lift?"
"Well what do ya know, that's where we're going!" Stu said with an unexpected cheerfulness. "I don't see any harm, what do you think, Officer Wilde?"
Nick supposed he should be lucky that their guest wouldn't delay them too much. "Hop in the back."
"Thanks a whole bunch! The name's Woody!" The woodchuck said eagerly as he jumped in the back seat and clamped in a seatbelt.
Of course it is, Nick thought as they set off again. He handed the phone to Stu. "Mr. Hopps, now's as good a time as any to call Gideon Grey."
The discovery of the peeling wallpaper behind the cupcake display the day before had been the last straw for Gideon Grey. First thing this morning he put a sign on his shop door explaining that his bakery was closed for redecorating and set to work. Granted he'd never decorated anything that wasn't edible, but how hard could it be?
The removal of the old blue wallpaper went easily enough. Once the paste was mixed up, Gideon unrolled the first roll of wallpaper. He'd chosen different wallpaper from the former, having been advised by little Cotton Hopps that the chocolate chip cookie pattern would be perfect for his business. Sure this wallpaper had been intended for a child's bedroom, but Gideon had been planning to make his shop look more inviting for the kids.
Gideon was about to climb the short stepladder with his new wallpaper when he saw that he'd missed a spot: that very same bit of peeling blue wallpaper behind the cupcake display that had prompted him to undertake this endeavor. "Tarnations." He climbed down, retrieved his scraper tool thingy from the cake counter and went to finish the job. He pulled off half the paper before it tore off, leaving a bunny-sized ragged patch still clinging to the wall. Gideon planted his free paw on the wall to keep himself from losing balance as he set to working scraping.
The big red phone on the back counter rang, startling him. The scraper thing slipped, opening a little cut on his index finger. "Ouch!" He stuck the wounded digit in his mouth as he started making his way over to the persistent phone, before making the big mistake of pulling out and giving himself a full view of the blood.
His eyes rolled up in his head and he keeled over. When Cotton came in the shop to visit seconds later, she found him sprawled over the stepladder like a sleeping bag on a clotheshorse.
As she ran over to wake him up, the phone gave up and went to voicemail. Five seconds later it started up again.
Disappointed, Bonnie put the payphone back on the cradle, left the booth and returned to Pop-Pop's side.
It was a stroke of luck that the three rabbits were able to hitch a ride with a travelling watchmaker, a rabbit of pure white fur, even if his route didn't take him to Tall Oaks. Instead he would be dropping them off at a car rental store in the neighboring town called Windaland, directly east of Tall Oaks. The town was world famous for its amusement park and gargantuan golf course, both founded by an aristocratic family of hedgehogs known as the Quinoharts. The rabbits were halfway there, stopped at a gas station so the white rabbit could refuel, Judy could go to the little girl's room and Bonnie could try to contact Gideon Grey.
"Well? Is the fox going for it?" Pop-Pop asked bitterly.
"He didn't pick up. He probably went out for something." Bonnie said. "We'll try again when we get to Windaland."
"I still don't like this." Pop-Pop muttered.
"You don't have to." Bonnie replied bluntly. "But Gideon's a good boy. He'll get that money and he'll wait for us."
"If Trudy's 'partner' doesn't get to it first." Pop-Pop said, his glare deepening. "Stu still has that fox taser, right?"
"He swapped it for a general taser after the Nighthowler Incident, you know that."
"Hmph. That'll have to do."
Now Bonnie was glaring back at him. "Pop-Pop, we need to have a talk about boundaries. One of these days you're going to go too far and say something that will get us in a lot of trouble." She didn't bother mentioning that it had already happened. Why else would they be standing in the middle of nowhere, separated from Stu and Nick? Why else would they be in this mess in the first place?
Judy came out the outdoors toilet and rushed over to them, just as the white rabbit finished refueling. Bonnie glanced at the price on the meter and handed the rabbit the money from her purse as thanks for the lift. The rabbit thanked her in return and went into the store to pay for the gas as his hitchhikers climbed back into the car. With Pop-Pop sulking in the front, Judy and Bonnie buckled in and rolled down the windows to let out some of the heat.
"Judy, darling?" Bonnie spoke after a couple minutes waiting for the White Rabbit to return. "You've been quiet since Nick and your father left. How're you doing?"
"I'm fine." Judy said, even thought her ears were droopy.
"No, you're not. You're upset about being separated from your friend, aren't you?"
Judy sighed and tugged on her black vest. "It wasn't supposed to go this way. We're partners. And I'm worried about him being alone with my dad. I can tell he's still not fully comfortable about foxes."
"It's just like love in Black Beauty and the Beast, sweetheart. These things take time. Anyway, you heard what he said earlier. He's surely accepted your friend by now."
Judy smiled a little at that. "I've got nothing to worry about, have I?"
Bonnie smiled back. "Besides, he's completely fine around Gideon Grey. It's just Nick that gets him nervous for some reason."
Judy's ears perked up. "And why is that?"
Bonnie shrugged. "I wish I knew. Anyway, I'm mad at you, Judy Hopps."
"What? Why?" Judy asked, confused.
Bonnie put on her miffed mom face. "You misled me about Nicholas."
"How did I mislead you?"
"When I met him earlier this morning, he turned out to be far more mature than you made him out to be."
"What?"
"Judy, you talked about him like he behaved like an utter juvenile while working with you."
"Oh come on, what on earth could I have said to make you think he was like that?"
Bonnie raised her voice a couple of octaves to mimic her daughter. "Gosh, I just wanna strangle him sometimes! Did you know he once glued my mouse to my desk? I swear, Chief Bogo is just one crack away from snapping that fox like a raw carrot!"
Judy turned pink and burst out laughing. "Oh sweet cheese and crackers, was I really that bad?!"
"There were a couple of times where you actually cursed."
"Mom, I was exaggerating!" Judy exclaimed before laughing some more, and. "I can't believe you believed all that!"
Bonnie laughed with her. "There we go! Now that we've got a smile back on your pretty face, why don't we focus on solving the case?"
Judy wiped her eyes, her cheeks still slightly coloured. "Okay mom."
Bonnie pulled a striped notebook out her purse. "Until we can try to call Gideon again, why don't you get your carrot pen out and we'll work on figuring out what this Blue Goliath is."
"Anchor, up." Raymond spoke into the little black device.
Nothing happened.
"Anchor, rise."
Nothing happened.
"Anchor, in!"
Nothing happened.
"Anchor, reel in!"
Nothing happened.
"Anchor, come up or die!"
Nothing happened.
Raymond looked sharply at the dripping wet Kevin. "Any ideas?"
Kevin shrugged. "You already said everything I'd have thought of."
Raymond restrained himself from tossing the device at the wall. Instead he set it down on the controls and took deep breaths. "This is your fault." He snarled. "If you hadn't fallen overboard, I wouldn't have had to lower that stupid thing!"
"If you hadn't made that sharp turn I wouldn't have fallen!" Kevin snapped indignantly. "You're probably not using the right phrase. Doesn't that microphone come with a manual?"
Raymond waved his arms around. "D'you see a manual around here?"
"Settle down, it might be below decks. Let's go check."
Bucky and Pronk Oryx-Antlerson crawled onto the muddy riverbank. The now useless Jet Ski went on without them, the current carrying it away.
Pronk wiped the water from his face and glared at Bucky. "And just exactly how did the handlebars come off?"
"I dunno, it was all a blur." Bucky mumbled. He got up and pulled Pronk up with him. "Let's just walk. The next dock can't be too far."
"Any idea how much we're going to have to pay to replace that thing?"
"Once we get that money, that won't be a problem."
"If we get that money. We should have stuck with the eight shares."
Bucky didn't answer that. Too cold and miserable to start another fight, they walked along the riverbank in silence until they went round a bend and saw what looked to be salvation. In the middle of the river was the very yacht their polar bear opponents had commandeered.
Bucky and Pronk looked at each other and grinned, both coming up with the same idea at the same time. They wouldn't walk to the next dock. Raymond and Kevin would take them right to Bunnyburrow and not even know it.
They quickly spied their way onboard, the thick grey chain of the anchor, and quietly went back into the water.
With the phone to his ear, Chief Bogo stared at the computer screen in front of him. "Looking at what I've got here, most of these people have no record at all. But now we're ready to book them for withholding information, obstructing the course of justice, assault and battery, assaulting a police officer, reckless driving, reckless endangerment, causing accidents, failing to report accidents..."
"Just goes to show what greed can do to a mammal." Bitter spoke from the phone. "From what the other authorities have told us, Mr. Finnick and your Front Desk Officer are currently taking the lead in this race. They're about fifteen minutes from Crabapple Valley. Depending on traffic it could take them between forty five minutes to an hour to get through that town and then it's a full hour's drive to Bunnyburrow."
"Have the Bunnyburrow authorities been informed of the supposed location of the money?"
There was a pause on the other end. "Chief Irons felt it would be safer if fewer people knew of the Blue Goliath."
Bogo tapped his fingers on his desk. "The sheriff is not going to appreciate being kept in the dark like this."
"He's been told of the situation itself. It's the blue goliath we left out."
"Oh. I still don't like it."
"I'm sorry but that's something you'll have to discuss with Chief Irons."
The kidney stone sent another wave of pain through the cape buffalo's body. "Of course." He growled, his fingers digging into the wood of his desk.
Bitter sighed deeply. "You two are never going to get along, are you?"
"Never. But I don't work with him on a daily basis, so I can't complain." Bogo spoke with sympathy towards the moose.
"Yes, lucky you. I've got to go, I need to get an update from the Crabapple Valley PD and... gah!"
Bogo straightened, provoking his kidney stone into inflicting more pain. "Bitter? What happened?"
"Oh crap!" Bitter cried with unexpected energy. Bogo heard traffic in the background. "Not again, drat!"
Bogo smirked. "You did it again didn't you?"
"I've got to stop opening that window all the way, crap!" Bitter was running. Bogo heard a door open.
"You threw your coat and missed the stand, didn't you?"
"I'll call you later, sir!" With that, Bitter hung up.
Bogo rubbed his tired eyes. This was turning out to be an absolutely crazy day. A dead casino robber. Road raging rabbits. A giant spider almost killing the mayor through sheer terror. Three officers going on an unexpected road trip. And now defenestrated coats.
Ain't life in Zootopia grand?
A slightly distorted rendition of Try Everything reached the weary chief's ears. His mobile phone was demanding his attention. Bogo put the phone to his ear. "Afternoon, auntie!" It was Clawhauser.
Bogo glanced at his watch. It was indeed past noon. "What's the news, Clawhauser?"
"We're almost to Crabapple Valley, auntie. We've just stopped for a pee break."
"Is Finnick still with you?" It was the only reason Clawhauser would continue to risk his own safety with this 'auntie' business.
"Yes, auntie."
"Clawhauser, if you must use an alias would you kindly use a male one?"
"Yes, auntie... hello, uncle! Sorry, I panicked when I said that!"
"That's much better. Have you figured out the Blue Goliath, yet?"
"Not yet, uncle. Maybe we'll figure it out once we get there."
"Where is Finnick right now?"
"He's just bringing Lucille in from the trunk."
"Lucille?"
"His bat. Just in case I try anything stupid."
"Ugh, a Prowling Dead fan, is he?"
"And proud of it."
"Just play it safe and don't give him any reason to go all Neighan on your butt."
"Yes, uncle. Oh, and by the way Spider Bogo's doing fine."
"... You named that multi-legged trouble maker after me?"
"Well, he's big, strong, and a total badass. Like you! Also, he's the exact the same color as you." Clawhauser replied blithely. "Oh, was that wrong?"
"Call him whatever you want, I don't care." Bogo said coolly, even if he did appreciate the positive comparison just a little.
"That your auntie again?" Came a snide deep voice in the background. It must be Finnick.
"Oh, it's my uncle actually!" Clawhauser said.
"Great. Who's Bogo?"
Hell on earth. "Clawhauser, play it cool." Bogo said quietly. "Say he's an old friend."
"He's an old friend." Clawhauser repeated. Bogo heard the car door open. "Hey, don't step on the box!"
"Okay, jeez!" The car door was slammed shut. "It's just donuts, chill out!"
"It's not donuts. Please just be careful around that box."
"If it's not donuts then what is it?"
"No, don't look down!"
"If you're GAAAAHHH!"
"I told you not to look!"
"What the hell is that thing?!"
"It's a tarantula, and I'm taking him to Bunnyburrow! There's an insect zoo there! Please don't yell, you'll frighten him!"
"What the frick are you doing keeping that thing in the front?!"
"Because he wouldn't be safe in the trunk, that's why!"
"Get it away from me!"
"Please calm down, he can't hurt you inside that box! Be careful with that bat!" He heard a wooden thud, as if Finnick had kicked it in his attempts to widen the distance between himself and the spider. "Be careful, you'll make it fall on- BOOOGOOOOO! BOGO, NOOOOOOOO! WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
"It was an accident, I didn't mean to-"
"NO, PLEASE DON'T BE SQUISHED!"
"Clawhauser, what happened?" Bogo yelled into the phone, only to be ignored.
"I'm sorry, I'll buy a new one, just stop-"
"Bogo! You're alive!"
"SON OF A VIXEN IT'S OUT!"
"Bogo! No, don't go under the seat!"
"RUN! SEAL OFF THE STATION!"
"Stop shouting, you're scaring him! Finnick! Finnick, put Lucille down!"
"YOU'RE NOT SINKING YOUR TEETH IN ME, BUG!"
"NO! LEAVE HIM ALONE!"
"HOLY CRAP IT'S COMING UP THE SEAAAAAAAAA-"
The line went dead.
Bogo sat frozen in his chair, his mouth agape as he waited for Clawhauser to call him back. He didn't.
The chief slowly put the phone down beside his desk phone and reached for his carton of cranberry juice.
He didn't know how much more of this he could take.
